Jane Lu, CEO of Showpo, Discusses Why She Loves Coworking

Catch Jane at our Christie Spaces Entrepreneurial Panel on 22nd March in Brisbane, at our brand new coworking space on Queen Street. Hear Jane speak about her own business journey, and the importance of collaborating and networking. To RSVP to the free event, click here.

Ahhhh coworking spaces, I bet heaps of you have seen my office space in videos and are now thinking “you don’t use coworking spaces Jane”, but I sure do. I think they’ve actually saved my workload and sanity!

My general manager (Alex Durkin) and I started finding it harder and harder to get bigger projects completed and work on long-term strategies as the company grew. The open plan office environment means that several times per hour, we’re both being interrupted by co-workers needing different tasks signed off or to run ideas past. While this is, of course, fantastic and I encourage an open and collaborative environment, it was clear we couldn’t get much done! So, we introduced ‘strategy days’ at a Sydney coworking space to maximise productivity without distractions from other team members.

We have both found it really useful having these weekly strategy days, and the coworking environment means that we’re always meeting and networking with really interesting people that utilise the space in either a similar capacity to us or even on a full-time basis in lieu of a ‘traditional’ office space.

For small-medium sized businesses, budding entrepreneurs and freelancers, a coworking space provides a cheaper alternative to renting and fitting out an office space with all the benefits of actually leaving your house and heading somewhere with purpose. When you work from home on the reg, it’s easy to sit in bed with your PJs on all day, balancing your laptop on a throw pillow. You also tend to get distracted by household chores and before you know it, you’ve wasted an hour cleaning the pantry!

If you’re a procrastinator, working from home can be the worst way to be productive. You’d be surprised how motivating it is to actually get up, get dressed and head into an office space, I highly encourage people to try it!

About Jane Lu

Jane Lu founded Showpo back in 2010 from her parents’ garage. Jane previously worked in accounting and corporate finance, but after returning from a year abroad, was inspired to ditch the “cubicle life”, so she quit her job to start her own business.

With so much enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, she set off to start her first business, which failed spectacularly. However, Jane was undeterred and got right back on the horse, starting the online fashion brand, Showpo the following month.

What started off with a laptop and two shelves of clothing is now an online global fashion empire, shipping to 80 countries. Through being disruptive in the retail space and capitalising on the use of social media, Showpo now boasts a cult social following of over 2.8 million.